I'm a long-time reader of this NG and so realize that there is a lot
of knowledge of EM principles on tap here. I'm pondering a non-ham
issue from my workplace (a power plant) and could use a little
education or peer checking of my ideas.

In the industry, there is occasionally a need to construct scaffolding
below the main generator, up to the area where the main leads exit.
Typically there are three leads (busses, phases) energized at 22kV
phase to phase and carrying around 28,000 amperes. These busses are
contained within individual aluminum ducts, creating sort of huge
coaxial cables (three of them). The busses run through the turbine
building and out to the transformer yard. The ducts are cross
connected with welded plates at the ends and maybe at one or two
intermediate locations to allow induced currents to circulate.

Here's the issue. Occasionally while erecting or removing such a
scaffold with the unit at full power, there will be reports of arcing
at the ends of scaffold poles (aluminum tube, I think) and of scaffold
members becoming hot. There are lots of anecdotal stories of such
events, and also of measuring from several to maybe 100 amperes in
scaffold members, ground cables, structures and permanent piping in the
vicinity.

Now, question or questions. Sifting through various stories and
recommendations, I see recommendations to assure that the scaffold is
well grounded. I'm not sure why this would help, assuming the
currents (and arcing) are the result of magnetic induction. One
recommendation is to ground only at one point, which makes sense to me.


I also see a lot of cautions about "static charge". It seems to me
that any static charge would be the result of an electric field. And
given that the busses (and generator) are enclosed in grounded metallic
housings, this should not be a possibility. Is this correct?

One person recommended non-metallic scaffolding, which I like. But
another wanted to assure that persons on that scaffold were grounded,
which I'm not too sure about. I don't think it would be harmful in
most cases, but I'd be concerned if the person and his ground
happened to complete a current loop. Does that make sense? Again, I
assume the grounding is for static charge concerns, which I don't see
as valid.

It seems to me that structures built in the vicinity of strong 60Hz
magnetic fields should either 1) avoid creating loops, including open
loops that could have high voltage across the open ends, or 2) make
sure the loops are intact and can carry the resulting induced currents.
Of course, #2 still makes disassembly while at power a problem.

Thanks for any opinions. I now return you to SWR, E-H, CM and G5RV.

73--Nick, WA5BDU